Birmingham City

2024–25 season
Owners	Birmingham Sports Holdings 51.7% Shelby Companies 45.96% Others 2.34%[1]
Chairman	Tom Wagner[1]
Manager	Chris Davies[2]
Stadium	St Andrew's
League One	1st
FA Cup	Fourth round (eliminated byNewcastle United)
EFL Cup	Second round (eliminated byFulham)
EFL Trophy	Runners-up (eliminated byPeterborough United)
Top goalscorer	League:Jay Stansfield (19) All: Jay Stansfield (23)
Highest home attendance	27,994 (vsNewcastle United, FA Cup 8 February 2025)
Lowest home attendance	6,900 (vsFulham U21, EFL Trophy 29 October 2024)
Average home league attendance	26,283
Home colours Away colours
← 2023–24 2025–26 →

The2024–25 season isBirmingham City Football Club's 122nd season in theEnglish football league system and first season in the third-tierEFL League One since1994–95. They finished in 22nd place in the2023–24 EFL Championship, and were relegated after 13 years at that level.^[3] The team confirmed promotion back to the Championship with six League One matches still to play,^[4] andWrexham's failure to beatWigan Athletic a few days later confirmed them as champions.^[5] It was Birmingham's first league title since winning theold Second Division in 1994–95.^[5] As with all third- and fourth-tierLeague clubs, the first team compete in theFA Cup, theEFL Cup and theEFL Trophy.

The season covers the period from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025.

In July 2023, Shelby Companies Ltd, a subsidiary of asset management company Knighthead Capital Management fronted byTom Wagner, Knighthead's co-founder and co-CEO,^[6] completed the purchase of 45.64% of Birmingham City plc shares and the whole of Birmingham City Stadium Ltd.^[7] Although previous ownersBirmingham Sports Holdings (BSH) retained 51% of the shares, Wagner confirmed that Shelby were "responsible for the operations of the club moving forward" and that "nothing about the way the transaction is structured will prevent us from obtaining the long-term goals we have for the club."^[1][8] FormerManchester City executiveGarry Cook was appointedCEO, and considerable media attention followed the arrival of American football player and seven-timeSuper Bowl winnerTom Brady as minority owner and chair of the club's advisory board.^[9][10]

Works begun during the 2022–23 season to demolish and rebuild the lower tiers of the Kop and Tilton Road stands, closed since late 2020 because of what was initially described as water damage to structural steelwork and eventually revealed to beasbestos-related,^[11][12] and interrupted when the main contractors filed foradministration finally completed in November 2023 under the management ofMace Consult. The rebuild included conversion of the lower Tilton tosafe standing.^[13][14] In January 2024, the club's owners, Shelby Companies, renamed the stadium St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park as part of what it described as "the largest commercial agreement in the club's history". According to Wagner, chairman of both club and Knighthead, it was "step one in our plan to create a world-renowned 'Sports Quarter' in Birmingham. We invested in Blues because of the opportunity to not only transform a football club but to also be a catalyst for change in the city itself."^[15] By the start of the 2024–25 season, the club intended to construct two fan parks outside the ground as well as refurbish hospitality areas within the stadium and make the public address system work.^[16]

Benefiting from the upgrade to the club's agreement with kit suppliersNike during the 2023–24 season to include bespoke rather than off-the-shelf product, the 2024–25 home kit consists of a royal blue shirt with white trim at collar and cuffs, white sides, and – with echoes of the Co-op Milk shirt of the 1980s – a white strip across the front carrying the logo of the club's principal partner,streetwear company Undefeated, white shorts and royal blue socks.^[17][18]

On-field matters ran less smoothly, resulting in Birmingham City beginning the2024–25 season in the third tier of English football for the first time since 1994–95.^[19][20]

On 6 June, after "close to 1,000 coaches being evaluated and more than 40 being spoken to directly or through their representatives",Chris Davies, senior assistant coach underAnge Postecoglou atTottenham Hotspur, was appointed manager on a four-year contract. It would be his first senior managerial role.^[2][21]

Among out-of-contract players, departures included the long-servingNeil Etheridge,Gary Gardner,Scott Hogan,Marc Roberts andIvan Sunjic, as well as young professionalsMarcel Oakley andTate Campbell. New contracts were offered toLukas Jutkiewicz andJohn Ruddy – Jutkiewicz accepted, Ruddy did not^[22][23] – and the option onKeshi Anderson's contract was taken up.^[24] The return of loaneeJay Stansfield, 2023–24 Player of the Year and top scorer, to his parent club left Birmingham particularly short of strikers.^[25][26]

The first contracted player to leave was midfielderAlex Pritchard, who joined TurkishSüper Lig clubSivasspor for an undisclosed fee.^[27]

The first new signings were goalkeepersRyan Allsop fromHull City andNorthern Ireland internationalBailey Peacock-Farrell fromBurnley,^[28][29] followed by2023–24 League One top scorerAlfie May from divisional rivalsCharlton Athletic.^[30]

After a week's training in Austria, to include a friendly againstGerman second-tier teamPaderborn 07,^[31] the team would take part in the third edition of the Arthur Cup, a match againstSolihull Moors in aid of children's charities in memory ofArthur Labinjo-Hughes.^[32] The club's programme continued with three friendlies against local opposition – away toWalsall andShrewsbury Town and at home toWest Bromwich Albion – and a match to mark the first anniversary of the death of Birmingham City legendTrevor Francis, at home to another of his former clubs,Rangers.^[31]

Birmingham began their league campaign at home toReading on 10 August 2024.^[39]

As with all teams in the lower two divisions of the Football League, Birmingham entered the competition in the first round, in which they were drawn to play away toNational League (fifth-tier) clubSutton United.^[87] Willumsson scored during the first half and Sutton failed to take chances to equalise.^[88] In the second round, Birmingham travelled to League One rivalsBlackpool, managed bySteve Bruce, who had twice led Birmingham into thePremier League in the early 2000s.^[89] Davies made ten changes from the team that won atExeter City five days before, startingLyndon Dykes andLukas Jutkiewicz up front and retaining onlyKrystian Bielik as captain. Both strikers scored within the first half hour,Jordan Rhodes made it 2–1 early in the second half but Birmingham brought on three regular first-teamers to strengthen the side.^[90]

Birmingham were drawn to play away to League One rivalsCharlton Athletic in the first round.^[93] In the second round, they lost 2–0 at home toFulham.^[94]

When Birmingham last took part in this competition, then named the Football League Trophy, inthe 1994–95 season, they beatCarlisle United inthe final viaPaul Tait'sgolden goal.^[96] In the group stage, Birmingham were drawn into Southern Group A alongsideShrewsbury Town,Walsall andFulham U21.^[97] A "losing draw" against Walsall and two wins gave Birmingham second place in the group and qualification for the knockout stages.^[98]

Birmingham made eight changes from the previous starting eleven for the visit toExeter City in the round of 32; full-backLee Buchanan made his first appearance of the season after five months out with injury.Luke Harris took advantage of a short back-pass to give the visitors a 22nd-minute lead, only for Exeter to equalise ten minutes laterdirect from a corner. In the second half,Ben Davies blockedJay Bird's shot on the goal-line andRyan Allsop saved from the rebound, andKeshi Anderson had a goal disallowed foroffside before Anderson scored the winning goal fromAyumu Yokoyama's through ball.^[99]

They were drawn away toSwindon Town in the round of 16.^[100]

For those players sold, released, or whose contract ended before the start of this season, see2023–24 Birmingham City F.C. season.

† Brackets round a club's name indicate the player's contract with that club had expired before he joined Birmingham.

* Signed primarily for thedevelopment squad

† Brackets round a club's name denote the player joined that club after his Birmingham City contract expired.

Sources:^{[155][24][156][157]}

Numbers in parentheses denote appearances made as asubstitute.

Players marked † left the club during the playing season.

Players with namesin italics and marked * were on loan from another club for the whole of their season with Birmingham.

Players listed with no appearances have been in the matchday squad but only as unused substitutes.

Key to positions: GK –Goalkeeper; DF –Defender; MF –Midfielder; FW –Forward

Players' appearances and goals by competition

No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name	League		FA Cup		EFL Cup		EFL Trophy		Total		Discipline
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
2	DF	ENG	Ethan Laird	27 (8)	4	3 (1)	1	2	0	3 (3)	0	35 (12)	5	6	0
3	DF	ENG	Lee Buchanan	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	4	1	1	0
4	DF	AUT	Christoph Klarer	43	1	3	0	2	0	5 (1)	1	53 (1)	2	13	0
5	DF	ENG	Dion Sanderson	1 (1)	0	1	0	1	0	3	0	6 (1)	0	2	1
6	MF	POL	Krystian Bielik	20 (12)	1	1 (1)	0	1 (1)	0	1 (2)	0	23 (16)	1	4	1
7	FW	SWE	Emil Hansson	12 (8)	1	0	0	2	0	0 (2)	1	14 (10)	2	0	0
8	FW	WAL	Tyler Roberts	0	0	0	0	1 (1)	0	0	0	1 (1)	0	0	0
9	FW	ENG	Alfie May[A]	27 (17)	16	0 (3)	0	1 (1)	0	5 (3)	1	33 (24)	17	5	0
10	FW	ENG	Lukas Jutkiewicz	0 (16)	1	2 (1)	1	1 (1)	0	2 (4)	0	5 (22)	2	2	0
11	MF	JPN	Koji Miyoshi †	1 (2)	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	1 (3)	0	0	0
11	MF	SCO	Scott Wright	3 (10)	1	2	0	0	0	4 (1)	2	9 (11)	3	1	0
12	MF	SCO	Marc Leonard	14 (21)	0	3	0	2	0	6 (1)	0	25 (22)	0	3	0
13	MF	KOR	Paik Seung-ho	36 (5)	1	1 (2)	0	1 (1)	0	2 (2)	0	40 (10)	1	1	0
14	FW	ENG	Keshi Anderson	27 (10)	7	2 (1)	0	2	0	3 (3)	2	34 (14)	9	9	0
15	MF	ENG	Alfie Chang	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0
16	DF	KOR	Lee Myung-jae	2 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2 (1)	0	0	0
17	FW	SCO	Siriki Dembélé †	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
17	FW	SCO	Lyndon Dykes	9 (16)	1	2 (1)	2	0	0	1 (3)	2	12 (20)	5	3	0
18	MF	ISL	Willum Þór Willumsson	36 (5)	6	1 (2)	1	1	0	3	0	50 (7)	7	1	0
19	MF	ENG	Taylor Gardner-Hickman *	22 (11)	3	2	0	0	0	6 (1)	0	30 (12)	3	7	0
20	DF	ENG	Alex Cochrane	41 (1)	1	3	0	1 (1)	0	6 (1)	0	51 (3)	1	7	0
21	GK	ENG	Ryan Allsop	38	0	1	0	2	0	4	0	45	0	6	0
23	DF	ISL	Alfons Sampsted *	4 (13)	1	1 (1)	0	0 (2)	0	2	0	7 (16)	1	0	0
24	MF	JPN	Tomoki Iwata	38 (2)	6	2	1	0	0	4 (1)	1	44 (3)	8	8	0
25	DF	ENG	Ben Davies *[A]	32 (3)	1	2	0	0	0	6 (1)	0	40 (4)	1	5	0
26	MF	WAL	Luke Harris *	10 (19)	3	3	0	1	0	3	1	17 (19)	4	6	0
27	MF	ENG	Brandon Khela	0 (2)	0	1	0	1	1	1 (1)	0	3 (3)	1	1	0
28	FW	ENG	Jay Stansfield	31 (6)	19	2	0	0	0	4 (1)	4	37 (7)	23	9	0
30	MF	ENG	Kieran Dowell *	17 (2)	5	1	0	0	0	3	0	21 (2)	5	3	0
31	DF	SCO	Grant Hanley	2 (11)	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	1 (1)	0	3 (13)	0	1	0
33	FW	JPN	Ayumu Yokoyama	0 (10)	0	2 (1)	1	0 (1)	0	5	3	7 (12)	4	1	0
35	MF	ENG	George Hall	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
39	MF	ENG	Byron Pendleton	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
41	MF	ENG	Cody Pennington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
42	DF	ENG	Josh Williams †	0	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0 (1)	0	0	0
43	FW	ENG	Zaid Betteka	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0	0	0	0 (1)	0	0	0
45	GK	NIR	Bailey Peacock-Farrell	8 (1)	0	3	0	0	0	4	0	15 (1)	0	1	0
47	MF	ENG	Josh Home	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
48	GK	ENG	Brad Mayo	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Players not included in matchday squads

No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name
19	MF	WAL	Jordan James †
46	DF	NIR	Tommy Fogarty
49	MF	ENG	Romelle Donovan

• Birmingham City F.C. seasons
• 2024–25 EFL League One by team

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